David Boies, the grinning lawyer with the frayed edges whose job it is to talk Al Gore into the White House, likes to gamble in casinos.

The 59-year-old advocate for mostly liberal causes is out of luck in Tallahassee, Florida's state capital: it just isn't that sort of place. But he gets to indulge his instincts today as the lead lawyer for the Democrats in the state supreme court, where the Gore campaign is fighting to have recounted votes added to the final tally.

Mr Boies is something of a contradiction. He headed the legal team in the US government's anti-trust case against Microsoft, yet before that he acted for the defence when the government brought an anti-trust case against IBM.

He represented Napster, which allowed people to trade music on the internet for free, yet he does not use a personal computer and has his family and secretary check his emails.

His appearance barely reflects his fees of about $700 an hour. The blue suits come off the peg at $200 a piece, the knit-tie is wound into a big knot, sports shoes are on his feet and his wispy hair sticks out at the back. This leaves the man with the Timex watch worn over his sleeve with plenty for the craps table.

"It is the casino game that you have the best chance of winning," he says of the pastime that helps him to relax. "The second thing is that, perfectly played, it's pure luck. It's literally a roll of the dice."

Mr Boies, a Yale graduate whose team will have an hour to make its case in the supreme court today, labours under what might to others be an insurmountable handicap: he is dyslexic. "He overcompensates with an overwhelming memory," says his wife, Mary, who is also a lawyer.

He will need it if the legal aspects of the post-presidential deadlock endure for as long as he suggests. "You don't call the end of the game after the first innings or the second innings," he says.

Mr Boies's main opponent today is likely to be Barry Richard, whose tongue is reputed to be as silvered as his generous mane of hair. Even though he is the lead advocate for the George W Bush campaign, the 58-year-old Tallahassee attorney is a registered Democrat.

Mr Richard's strength is in his local Florida connections. He is the son of a former mayor of Miami Beach, was a member of the state legislature for four years in the 1970s and is considered an expert in open meetings and public records law. But he has also won three cases in the US supreme court.

"He's one of the sharpest people I know," says Dick Shelton, director of the Florida Press Association, for which he has long been a lobbyist. "He's brilliant and has a great analytical mind. If I was in trouble, he's the one I'd hire to represent me."

Whatever happens in court today, somebody will still be in trouble. Perhaps, if it is Mr Boies, he will seek solace in his love of country music, specifically Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Somewhere in his photographic memory will be lodged one of Nelson's greatest songs: Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground.